Tibetan woman of mixed parentage appointed Provincial Secretary of CCP's Political Consultative Conference

[Tuesday, January 23, 2018 19:39]

By Tenzin Dharpo

Cui yuying/file

DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 23: In a first, a Tibetan woman of mixed parentage has been appointed as the Provincial Secretary in the Chinese Communist Party, a position considered to be of key political decision making potential. Cui Yuying, 59, has been appointed for post of Secretary for the province of Fujian's Political Consultative Conference on Monday, Chinese state media reported.

China has never appointed any Tibetan to the post of party Secretary, a post held only by Chinese cadres, with the most power within the ranks.

Yuying was born in Changle County, Shandong province to a Chinese father and a Tibetan mother. Her father, a former officer in the People’s Liberation Army married her mother during his posting in Tibet.

Prior to her appointment to the key position, she was serving as the deputy head of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China and the deputy director of the State Council Information Office; positions no ethnic minority had held in the propaganda department's history.

She taught at the department of forestry at the Agriculture and Herders College of Tibet in the early 1980’s. She became a cadre in the Economic Committee of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1986 and went on to hold various smaller positions for People’s Insurance Company of China’s Tibet branch. Her first post of political significance was as the Director of the Autonomous Regional Committee, Publicity Dept of TAR in 2006.

She was promoted to the Deputy Director of Information office of the State Council in 2012 and was seen making numerous foreign visits on the behalf of her office.

Cui Yuying has also been seen as openly embracing her Tibetan heritage wearing the traditional Tibetan attire during public engagements over the years and has extensive knowledge of working in the Tibetan Autonomous Region.